Looking Toward a Diverse Future: The Value of Visiting Scholars

Kymani Montgomery and Radek Oros are two exceptional scholars who have encouraged our personal, professional, and academic development. Learn more about them.

At Leysin American School in Switzerland, we value every talented scholar in our Global Family that visits our campus and shares their expertise with our students. Gaining knowledge and experience from scholars and passionate academics inspires our students and encourages them to advocate for themselves and learn more about the world around them. Interacting with community members from different backgrounds, cultures, and identities develops compassion and understanding and reflects our beautifully diverse staff and student body. In the past couple of months, we have welcomed two exceptional scholars onto our campus, Kymani Montgomery and Radek Oros, who encouraged our personal, professional, and academic development.

Our first visiting scholar was Kymani Montgomery, an alumnus of LAS who now works as Camp Director and Programs Manager of the Ten Oaks Project in Ottawa, Canada. Kymani delivered workshops across our school, empowering us to make LAS more inclusive for students, faculty, and staff members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community. Kymani’s presentations to students and staff highlighted the importance of a community-wide approach and demonstrated to students the lifelong nature of learning. As an educational institution, encouraging all members of our community to learn about and celebrate all aspects of our diversity and challenging everyone to be good citizens of the world is central to our mission.

Our second visiting scholar was Radek Oros, who previously worked with us during our LAS Summer in Switzerland program. He visited the school and led a presentation and discussion on Studies in Career & Life Design, which centered around a 21st-century approach to self-construction and creating a meaningful career. He discussed managing change and transition and its importance when we look ahead to a new chapter in our lives, whether that entails going to university, looking for a career, or retiring. Radek’s second workshop about designing our futures allowed students to map out their goals and encouraged them to think about their current versus ideal life trajectories. This allowed students to find greater meaning in their studies and make connections between their present and future endeavors.

Both scholars presented thought-provoking and challenging ideas that pushed our students to think outside the box and create solutions to complex problems. At LAS, welcoming scholars onto campus is of immense value to our staff and students, and our community loves learning about different people’s lived experiences. In doing so, we hope to challenge our preconceived notions and look toward a better future.

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Leysin American School in Switzerland

Leysin American School in Switzerland

Located in the breathtaking Swiss Alps, Leysin American School has a history of nurturing talent and motivating students to succeed in education, sports, and the arts. The boarding school bring together students from around the world to create a campus community with a global perspective and a family atmosphere. LAS offers the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma, a comprehensive US university preparatory curriculum, and, for non-native English speakers, an integrated English Language Acquisition (ELA) program.

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